Huntsville Office

JAPAN SPACE SYMPOSIUM 2017 FEATURES ALASKA AEROSPACE

ANCHORAGE, AK: The Alaska Aerospace Corporation (AAC) was honored to be invited to deliver a presentation addressing the unique aspects of owning and operating the Pacific Spaceport Complex – Alaska (PSCA), a State of Alaska owned, non-Federal spaceport, at the 2017 Japan Space Symposium, held April 17, 2017 in Tokyo, Japan. The invitation followed a visit to PSCA in June 2016 by a Japanese delegation led by the Honorable Hiroshi Imazu, an elected member of the Japan House of Representatives and Chairman, Space Policy Research Council (LDP), where the delegation received an extensive briefing on AAC operations, toured PSCA, and explored ideas concerning future plans for expanding into the small and ultra-small commercial launch market.

In 2015 representatives from AAC visited the Uchinoura Space Center in Japan to discuss opportunities for Alaska and Japan to collaborate on space launch opportunities. The trip included a site visit to Uchinoura Space Center, which is very similar to Alaska’s PSCA launch facility. The trip concluded with a visit to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to discuss the development and future operational aspects of the Epsilon rocket.

Following the 2017 Japan Space Symposium, Craig E. Campbell, AAC President and Chief Executive Officer stated “Japan and Alaska have had close relationships covering the seafood, timber, coal, air cargo, and tourism industries for over fifty years, with Alaska recently opening a state gas line office in Tokyo to market Alaska natural gas. Expanding the relationship into aerospace and space launch opportunities has the potential of being mutually beneficial for the commercial space markets in both Japan and the United States. This symposium provided the perfect venue to present Alaska capabilities and to discuss areas where we may be able to create a market advantage by working more closely together.”

Alaska Aerospace Corporation is a state-owned corporation established to develop a high-technology aerospace industry in Alaska. AAC owns and operates the Pacific Spaceport Complex – Alaska (PSCA) located on Kodiak Island offering all indoor, all weather, processing and providing optimal support for both orbital and sub-orbital space launches to low earth orbit, sun synchronous orbit, polar orbit, and highly elliptical orbits such as Molniya and Tundra orbits. Its corporate headquarters is in Anchorage, Alaska with a regional office in Huntsville, Alabama.